Norway’s
first case of ebola will be handled here, at Ullevål
University
Hospital in Oslo, which has special isolation units and equipment.
PHOTO: Wikipedia
UPDATED:
Norwegian health authorities claimed they were ready on Monday to
tackle their first case of ebola, after a Norwegian woman who works for Leger Uten Grenser, Norway’s chapter of Medecins Sans Frontieres,
tested positive to the deadly virus. She was being flown to Norway
Monday evening from her work in West Africa, for treatment in a
special isolation ward at Oslo’s Ullevål University Hospital.
The woman, a doctor with the organization’s team in Sierra Leone, was
due to land at the military portion of Oslo’s main airport at
Gardermoen and then be transported in a specially designed ambulance to
Ullevål.
Anne-Cecilie Kaltenborn, secretary general of Leger Uten Grenser in
Norway, said that all the organization’s routines will be examined
carefully to try to find out how the woman, who isn’t being identified,
was infected.
Kaltenborn said 22 Norwegian health care specialists have traveled to
the affected areas in West Africa to help ebola patients. Of 16 locally
hired workers for the organization who’ve been infected by ebola, 10
have died, she said. The Norwegian woman is only the second of health
care workers who’ve traveled to the area for Leger Uten Grenser to be
infected.
Confirmation of the first Norwegian to have fallen ill with ebola came just hours after three Norwegian government ministers announced plans to double Norway’s financial aid
to the campaign to contain the spread of the potentially fatal virus.
Norway’s defense minister had also confirmed that the Norwegian military
was trying to ready a military transport plane to help with evacuations
as needed.
It wasn’t immediately revealed how long the woman now ill with ebola
had been working for the international medical aid organization in
Sierra Leone. Kaltenborn said 14 of the 22 Norwegians taking part in the
effort to treat ebola patients and contain the epidemic have worked in
Sierra Leone and three are still there. The organization said the
woman now ill was placed in isolation on Sunday after complaining of not
feeling well and developing a fever. Tests conducted the same day
confirmed she’d contracted the virus.
She was to be flown from the country’s capital of Freetown late
Monday night and will undergo treatment at Ullevål, which has been
training for months to handle ebola cases and has the medical equipment
needed. Health Minister Bent Høie had said earlier in the day that
Ullevål was ready to offer its isolation units to other countries
needing treatment help, and that Norway was offering to send equipment
to West Africa as well. Now there’s suddenly an urgent need to use it at
home.
‘Always a risk’
“Leger Uten Grenser (Doctors Without Borders) has strict routines for the safety of our employees, both before, during and after their duty in a country hit by the ebola epidemic,” Kaltenborn said earlier on Monday. “These routines reduce the possibility of becoming ill, but there will always be a risk and unfortunately this also applies to our people in the field.”
“Leger Uten Grenser (Doctors Without Borders) has strict routines for the safety of our employees, both before, during and after their duty in a country hit by the ebola epidemic,” Kaltenborn said earlier on Monday. “These routines reduce the possibility of becoming ill, but there will always be a risk and unfortunately this also applies to our people in the field.”
A spokesman for Norway’s foreign ministry said the ministry was
informed about the ebola case Sunday evening, although no mention of it
was made at the ministers’ press conference Monday morning.
“We’re taking this very seriously,” Rune Bjåstad of the foreign
ministry told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Monday afternoon. “Together
with the defense ministry and the transport ministry, the foreign
ministry has supported the health ministry in its work to establish
preparedness for the evacuation of infected health care workers.” He
confirmed that Leger Uten Grenser was handling the transport of the
woman from West Africa home to Norway, and that Norwegian health
authorities “would receive her in line with the procedures that are
established.”
Foreign Minister Børge Brende said that more than 7,500 people are
now infected with the ebola virus and that “dramatic and fast” measures
are needed in order to contain it.
newsinenglish.no/Nina Berglund
